..... the puzzling ramblings of a puzzled man ..... or metagrobologist .....

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

I'm on a roll!!

I'm getting back into this now blogging malarkey, so why stop!

Duo Nails ... maybe!

The next puzzle I picked out of my bag of tricks is yet another disentanglement puzzle from the Czech Republic, purchased from Wil Strijbos (message me or leave a comment below if you want his email!). This one I believe to be called "Duo Nails", or possibly Two Nails, my knowledge on the Czech language is a little nonexistent!!

Anywho, obviously the aim is to separate the two nails. Easier said than done! This one had me stumped for quite a while. It probably took me about half an hour to get the two nails apart, at which point I put them down and took a picture. Little did I know, that would be my downfall!

When I picked them back up again, thinking I'd remembered how they came apart, they obviously wouldn't go back together! Another hour or so later, and a few different alterations to my method, I finally got them back together! Once again however, it took me another half an hour to get them apart .... and you can see where this is going. By this point I was actually starting to get frustrated with it, because I couldn't work out why it kept taking me so long to repeat the solve!

When I eventually got them back together again(!), this time I definitely knew how I got them apart. So the next attempt I experimented throughout the solve and sussed out why it was taking me so long to get them apart each time.

Apart and identical!

And I'll tell you why!! I don't think it will give anything away, but I realised that one of the movements is only possible one way, meaning the two nails are different!! So once I got them apart again I held them up to each other and they looked identical; all of the spaces, the width of the nail, all the way round, they are both the same! So how can one of the moves only be performed one way?! I have no idea!

Anywho, once you find out which way it does work (there's a 50/50 chance!) the puzzle comes apart really nicely, the movement especially! You can even hold it in a way where one nail does all the moving and rotates about itself round the other nail.

So, despite getting quite frustrated with this puzzle at one point, I would definitely recommend it. It was part of the handful of puzzle I thrust in front of Wil, so as with my last post I don't know how much it cost, but it can't have been a lot (considering there was about six puzzles in that handful for £35!). So I'd say it is definitely a value-for-money puzzle, and probably another good puzzle to torment muggles HAHA!!